Esher Cricket Club

Winter Nets 2025

Course Information – Indoor Coaching Courses  – 12 weeks 4th Jan to 28th March 2025

We have again secured the sports hall at Claremont Fan Court School which has two indoor nets, a separate playing area, where we can use the bowling machine or as an additional net. Sessions will include skill drills for batting, bowling and fielding. Each session will be 90 mins in length. Places will be limited to a maximum attendance number of 14 YC’s per session for the 90 min sessions, which will ensure that every young cricketer receives good batting and bowling time. For a 90 min session, each YC will bat for 15 mins but will also have the benefit of the bowling machine.

With a coach ratio of almost 4:1, increased batting time, use of a bowling machine and a sports centre for only our use, I’m expecting these sessions to be the best so far for developing Esher’s young cricketers.

We will also be using video equipment to capture the YC’s technique for both batting and bowling, which we will analyse and share with the parents. This will bring a further dimension to the coaching programme, as they say “Seeing is believing”. We will also be introducing some challenges and tests for the young cricketers for both bowling and batting.

Coaches will include: Sohail Ahmed, Khurram Irshad, Nic Smit, Lee Cothill and Myself – All Ex 1st Class Cricketers and extremely experienced at coaching to a high standard at youth level.

The age groups referred to below are the age groups for next season (2025). All age groups will play with a hard cricket ball. Please note that cricket balls will not be supplied, so please bring your own, along with your full cricket kit. Please Note U8’s will be a Soft Ball Age Group

Venue: Claremont Fan Court School. Please only use the entrance from the Portsmouth Road

For further information please contact Duncan Pauline –Duncan.Pauline@gmail.com

Session Details & Costs –  4th Jan to 28th March 2025  inclusive (12 weeks)

Venue: Claremont Fan Court School. http://www.claremontfancourt.co.uk/page/?title=How+To+Find+Us&pid=96&r=1 Please only use the entrance from the Portsmouth Road

Clubhouse Refurbishment and Funding

Loan Note Scheme and Capital Expenditure

You will be pleased to know that we have now fully repaid the £150,000 cost of the New Road nets project. This has been a tremendous effort by everyone in the club. Thank you.

However, life does not stand still, and we would now like to fully refurbish the clubhouse with new furniture, new carpets, complete redecoration and an upgrade to the kitchen to maintain the highest levels of hygiene. In addition, we need to replace the storage shed by the nets, resolve drainage issues at the back of the nets area and refurbish the electronic scoreboard. As with everything these days, this will not be cheap.

We estimate the total cost may be in the range of £60,000 to £70,000 and likely to be near the top end of that range. We hope to be able to finance part of this with some of the revenues from the 2025 City Lunch and the 2025 Club Ball and we will look to see if there are any available grants. However, we are likely to require a further £60,000 to complete the project. We have discussed a number of financing options including bank loans and all that they entail and, in the end, decided we would like to keep the financing within the club.

To do this we would like to launch to members a loan note scheme whereby 120 members pledge to loan the club £500 each (or multiples thereof) which would be repaid free of interest over the next six years. Full details are available here.

As with the nets project, I do hope you feel able to support this upgrade to our facilities which is long overdue.

Thank you.

Neil McCallum

About the club

Esher Cricket Club was formed in 1863 and is a community focused club offering cricket for the under 5’s to over 60’s. We are committed to the concept of fair (but hard) play and adhere to the MCC Sprit of cricket.

The 1st XI play in the Premier Division of the Surrey Cricket Championship, the very highest standard of league cricket in Surrey. The 2^nd XI play in Division 3 of the new league structure.

The league is now a pyramid structure and this season the 3^rd XI play in Division 8,  the 4th XI play in Division 10 and our 5th XI will play Division 11 after winning their league last year.

All 3rd, 4th and 5th XI home matches will be played at Imber Court. We also organise 6th and 7th XI friendly fixtures throughout the season.

Some 700 young cricketers (boys and girls) play from the U5 to U19 age groups with training sessions offered throughout the year. In addition, in excess of 700 matches and tournaments are arranged for the young cricketers during the summer months. We also provide winter and holiday coaching courses.  Whilst our main ethos is development, inclusivity and match play for all.  Our young teams also enjoy many successes. There are in excess of 70 players who are involved with the Surrey CCC Performance programs. In 2024 our U15s played at Lords in the Final of the ECB Cup and in 2021, our U13s became ECB National Champions.  We have a top-level team of coaches, led by Duncan Pauline, four of whom have international playing experience. Esher has the Clubmark accreditation ensuring the welfare of our young players.

We also have a women’s section, and all are welcome, no experience or kit needed. We also hold Women’s socials in the Summer.

The Club has a vibrant social calendar. During the year the Club organise an end of season ball (September), a City lunch (April), lunch at the Club (May) and a comedy night (May).

If you are interested in joining the club please contact Dan Taylor (adult)  on daniel.r.taylor@dhl.com or 07583 668591, Mark Hopkinson (boys) m_hoppy@hotmail.com and Sid Simmons (girls) esherccgirlssection@gmail.com ,    Sue Da Vall (womens) EsherWomenSection@gmail.com

Neil McCallum

Chairman & Secretary